Many years ago my buddies and I would go smelt dipping at Point Pelee in Canada. It is a big park and when the smelt are running they come in by the billions! Usually we would take a 20-30 ft sein and it would just take a couple passes and we had every five gallon bucket we owned full. Many people used dip nets but not us.
One time we took my buddys boat on a trailer. When we got to the park people looked at us like a calf at a new gate. They thought we were nuts but we had a plan.
There were so dang many smelt and no limit that we backed the boat to the area we were gonna sein for them and started hauling net. No buckets for us! We were gonna be smart. Dumbasses is what we were
One of us, the smart one, would be on the shallow end and another, the drunk dumb one, would take the other end out and when as deep as he could go, over the hip boots by far, he would swing around in an arc to the shore. Some times back then we would get so many on one pass that we would fill all our buckets. Not with the boat though!
We hauled and dumped as fast as we could and when we ran out of beer we headed home. We had that boat filled 2/3 at least. We covered it with a tarp and snugged it down tight! Well sorta pretty tight anyway.
We came back across the border at the Ambassador bridge acting sober like and headed home. I forget what way we came, it was long ago but we eventually got to Telegraph Road and headed toward Pontiac. We were having a ball for sure. Lots of smelt and a good time had by all.
Somewhere along the way people started passing us and we noticed a few dirty looks and half peace signs but didn't know why. Finally we stopped at a light and a guy next to us rolled down his window and said, "Don't you azzholes know you are making a dang mess?" I was driving but not being an azzhole back then I asked what my buddy Larry had done. He just shook his head and took off.
When this happened again I thought we had better pull over and see what Larry had done. Him being the Azzhole and all
Well I walked back and lifted the tarp and the boat was only a third full of smelt! It seemed Larry, it had to be him because the guy blamed the azzhole, had not tied the tarp down as well as expected and every time I took off at a light the smelt would slide back and a bunch would slop off the back of the boat and when I stopped they would slosh out of the bow. Man we must have spread smelt at every dang light for 20 miles, at least the ones we stopped at.
Well the upshot of it is that we got the hell off Telegraph Road and took a longer way back to avoid cops.
We still had more smelt than we could clean though
One time we took my buddys boat on a trailer. When we got to the park people looked at us like a calf at a new gate. They thought we were nuts but we had a plan.
There were so dang many smelt and no limit that we backed the boat to the area we were gonna sein for them and started hauling net. No buckets for us! We were gonna be smart. Dumbasses is what we were
One of us, the smart one, would be on the shallow end and another, the drunk dumb one, would take the other end out and when as deep as he could go, over the hip boots by far, he would swing around in an arc to the shore. Some times back then we would get so many on one pass that we would fill all our buckets. Not with the boat though!We hauled and dumped as fast as we could and when we ran out of beer we headed home. We had that boat filled 2/3 at least. We covered it with a tarp and snugged it down tight! Well sorta pretty tight anyway.
We came back across the border at the Ambassador bridge acting sober like and headed home. I forget what way we came, it was long ago but we eventually got to Telegraph Road and headed toward Pontiac. We were having a ball for sure. Lots of smelt and a good time had by all.
Somewhere along the way people started passing us and we noticed a few dirty looks and half peace signs but didn't know why. Finally we stopped at a light and a guy next to us rolled down his window and said, "Don't you azzholes know you are making a dang mess?" I was driving but not being an azzhole back then I asked what my buddy Larry had done. He just shook his head and took off.
When this happened again I thought we had better pull over and see what Larry had done. Him being the Azzhole and all
Well I walked back and lifted the tarp and the boat was only a third full of smelt! It seemed Larry, it had to be him because the guy blamed the azzhole, had not tied the tarp down as well as expected and every time I took off at a light the smelt would slide back and a bunch would slop off the back of the boat and when I stopped they would slosh out of the bow. Man we must have spread smelt at every dang light for 20 miles, at least the ones we stopped at.
Well the upshot of it is that we got the hell off Telegraph Road and took a longer way back to avoid cops.
We still had more smelt than we could clean though
